Arizona Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Coming Soon

The final revised Arizona Medical Marijuana rules have been approved by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and filed with the Secretary of State.

The Arizona Department of Health Services , which oversees the state’s medical marijuana program, will begin accepting applications for those interested in operating a dispensary between May 14 and May 25.Applications will not be accepted before or after that period.

Plans call for awarding the certificates by Aug. 7.

The ADHS website will include the application. It also will include the revised rules until the Secretary of State officially publishes the final rules.

ADHS Director Will Humble said he wanted to get the new rules posted as soon as possible because he is not sure how long it will take the Secretary of State to officially publish the rules.

“But once we can link to them, then people will be viewing the real thing,” Humble said.

These revised rules are a result of a lawsuit in which Judge Richard Gama required ADHS to change its dispensary selection criteria earlier this year.

When voters approved the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act in November 2010, the dispensary application process was set to begin in June 2011. But in May of last year, the state filed a lawsuit in federal court asking if state employees would be breaking federal law by dealing with medical marijuana dispensaries. Federal Judge Susan Bolton rejected that lawsuit, which now is putting the dispensary application process back on track — with a few minor changes to the applicant criteria.

Originally, the state health department had stringent financial requirements for applicants, such as no bankruptcy history, which the judge rejected.

The changes in the rules approved by the Attorney General’s Office now allow dispensary operators to have previous bankruptcies. They also will not be required to file personal income taxes in Arizona for the previous three years.

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